ABSTRACT
When the Conservatives won the 1979 General Election, local authorities were the largest landlords in the country, accounting for 32 per cent of the housing stock of Great Britain, compared to 13 per cent in 1947 and less than 2 per cent in 1913. From the late nineteenth century until the 1970s, the state recognised that the private sector was unable to supply enough housing at reasonable prices or rents to satisfy total need. Taking on this responsibility, governments throughout most of this period financially supported the extension of council housing, with owneroccupation receiving comparatively little assistance until the 1970s. However, under three Thatcher governments, local authorities’ share of the total stock fell dramatically to only 21 per cent by 1991, and under the Major and Blair administrations to as little as 16 per cent by 2000. It is within this context that this chapter:
• examines the function of council housing in the twentieth century, and the changing responsibilities of local authorities in the supply of social rented housing;
• analyses public sector finance, particularly with regard to the control of capital expenditure, rent and subsidy policy, and the anomalies and inequities of finance;
• considers the shortage of council housing and the problem of empty council houses; • explores the negative and positive aspects of council tenure; • reviews party politics and the devolution of housing management; and • concludes by contemplating the role of local authority housing in the early years of the
new millennium.
